Friday, November 22, 2013

JFK: Fifty Years On

Fifty years ago today, on November 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. The news of Kennedy's death shocked the nation and the world, and has prompted numerous conspiracy theories and numerous investigative commissions since the tragedy occurred. His respective merits and shortcomings aside, JFK was a truly global figure; his admirers came from a host of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. The shining moment of his short-lived administration, the aversion of nuclear war with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, is proverbially hailed as one of the most critical diplomatic successes of the twentieth century. And his untimely death, too, remains a landmark moment in the history of the United States. Occurring in a decade marked by the promise of substantial social and political change, Kennedy's death served as an omen of the forthcoming tragedies that would dash the hopeful spirit of the '60's- the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, among them.

John F. Kennedy- immortalized as he may be- was not a perfect president, nor was he a perfect person. He was, however, inspiring both as a public servant and an individual. Half a century on, in a world that recalls many of the uncertainties of the 1960's, we reflect upon President Kennedy's life and death with reverence and solemnity.

John F. Kennedy; Friday, November 22, 1963.

Monday, November 4, 2013

The Photographic Past, Part III

This is what a railroad bridge looked like at the turn of the 20th Century. I think I'd just stay home.
Oregon, ca. 1901-04.
Muhammed Ali celebrates his third round victory over Cleveland Williams in their Heavyweight Title bout on November 14, 1966. The fight was Williams's first since he'd been been shot in the abdomen by a police officer during a traffic stop.
In July 1960, Jane Goodall arrived in the British Protectorate of Tanganyika to study the behavioral patterns of primates. Her ensuing 45-year study at Gombe Stream National Park would result in her consideration as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees. 

Adolf Hitler, V.I. Lenin, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor Hirohito... Coca Cola.
Not sure if this is a Coke or a Pepsi advertisement. ca. 1950s.

The Mayflower II, an exact replica of the original, sails into New York Harbor at the end of its transatlantic voyage in 1957. No word on whether or not the blimp was an exact replica too.

Mickey Mantle tosses his batting helmet during a 1965 game at Yankee Stadium. If those forearms are any indication, that helmet still hasn't landed.
A young American soldier in Vietnam, photographed with The Beatles' 1967 LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The average age of the 58,148 US soldiers killed in Vietnam was just 23.11 years ("Statistics About the Vietnam War").

In 1966, brothers Sly (pictured above) and Freddie Stone merged their two bands to form "Sly & the Family Stone." By 1969, the pioneering funk band was performing at The Woodstock Music & Art Fair. By 1973, Bob Marley & The Wailers were their opening act.

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"Statistics About the Vietnam War." History.com. The History Channel, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013. <http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html>.